vbcc 0.9d

[phx]

After three years and an unreleased version 0.9c I decided to release 0.9d today. I cannot promise that it will be bug-free, but it is a huge improvement compared to the last official release 0.9b, with many new features and bug fixes.

http://sun.hasenbraten.de/vbcc/

[FastRobPlus]

Looks interesting!

One issue: I can't seem to reach the vbcc.pdf documentation linked on the sidebar of the site.

[phx]

Our server is moving these days. There may be periods of unavailability.
Seems I hit the perfect day after such a long time.

[strim]

Thanks! I appreciate your work on vbcc.

[NovaCoder]

Thanks for this, I'll give it a go

[AlfaRomeo]

Great work, thanks for that.
Will install it.

[Thorham]

Cool How fast is it compared to SASC 6.58 on a 50 mhz 68030?

[phx]

Probably slower. SAS/C was designed to work with low memory and CPU requirements. vbcc is not. It is certainly not recommended to run it on a 68000 system with a few MB of memory. Therefore I compiled everything for 68020. 68030/50MHz should be sufficient, when you have at least 32 or 64 MB RAM.

On the other hand you can easily cross-compile with vbcc.

[Apollo]

are there any links to the sources of vbcc 0.9d ?

http://www.ibaug.de/vbcc/vbcc.tar.gz still seem to point to the older release

[phx]

I already notified Volker to update the link on his home page.
In the meantime you can always send me an email to request the source.

[tolkien]

I have tried this version with -g -hunkdebug -bamigahunk and a few other (´-lamiga etc etc) to can debug with CPR (SASC debugger).
I can see the source code in the debugger but if I try to "Watch" a variable it says "Can´t find symbol".
Perhaps I don´t generate full debugger info but I have read the vbcc manual and don´t know what to do.
Any ideas mates?

[matthey]

Originally Posted by tolkien

I have tried this version with -g -hunkdebug -bamigahunk and a few other (´-lamiga etc etc) to can debug with CPR (SASC debugger).
I can see the source code in the debugger but if I try to "Watch" a variable it says "Can´t find symbol".
Perhaps I don´t generate full debugger info but I have read the vbcc manual and don´t know what to do.
Any ideas mates?

Compiling using vbcc 0.9d with -g should give symbols as well as SAS/C style line debug allowing sources to be shown. You don't need to give any other debugging options. I have not had any problems with symbols in BDebug (from Barfly archive on Aminet) or with any disassemblers I use. You can also read executables looking for symbol texts at the bottom to verify. Have you tried to "Watch" a variable in a SAS/C compiled program with symbols to see if you get the same error?

[tolkien]

With Sasc compiled programs there's no problem. I'll try with only -g later. Thanks as always matthey.

[Locutus]

Thanks a lot, i've used vbcc to port the BSD2.11 userland on top of AmigaOS. Lets see if vbcc 0.9d breaks anywhere on that :-)

[tolkien]

I have something wrong here and I don´t know what.
I have done a "hello world" example,compiled with vc -g hello.c -o hello.exe and then cpr hello.exe.
I see the source but can´t watch any variable and cpr show "Host and Kernel Executables are not the same version" "Debug Version may be innacurate".
As I have said, with SASC compiled programs all is ok.

I have reinstalled VBCC but nothing. Extrange but have to investigate a bit more...

[BigFan]

From vbcc release notes:

AmigaOS/68k config files include -hunkdebug, so specifying -g on the commandline is sufficient now for getting line debug info.

Line debug. No symbol hunk is generated, no variable names are saved. Debug info is path to source and line numbering. You can trace run your code and watch what happens to your real output, but you'll be unable to set watches for your vars and functions.

I know, this is of no help, sorry. I don't know a trick to get around this.

[tolkien]

Oh! Thanks BigFan. Now I know It's not my fault. I hope vbcc add symbol debug.
I'll have to do my stuff with SAS/c then.

[matthey]

Originally Posted by Locutus

Thanks a lot, i've used vbcc to port the BSD2.11 userland on top of AmigaOS. Lets see if vbcc 0.9d breaks anywhere on that :-)

There are already several fixes since the vbcc 0.9d release so let us know if you have any problems.

Originally Posted by BigFan

From vbcc release notes:
Line debug. No symbol hunk is generated, no variable names are saved. Debug info is path to source and line numbering. You can trace run your code and watch what happens to your real output, but you'll be unable to set watches for your vars and functions.

There is most definitely symbols and line debug with -g. Without -g there is neither. I can confirm with BDebug and disassemblers like ADis.

Originally Posted by tolkien

Oh! Thanks BigFan. Now I know It's not my fault. I hope vbcc add symbol debug.

GCC symbols give the same error as vbcc symbols. Symbol output is fairly generic and more common than line debug. I doubt there is a problem with the vbcc or vlink symbol debug output but CPR may expect special SAS/C embedded debug data or CPR may lack robustness in it's symbol loading code (it is designed to only load SAS/C produced executables). It may be possible to add what SAS/C needs to get symbols working. I can confirm the problem with watching symbols and getting the "can't find symbol" error. Frank may be able to add support if you let him know or if he sees this thread.

[tolkien]

I'll try to contact Frank today.
I think CPR is a good tool and the union with vbcc is perfect to me.
Thanks as always matthey.

[tolkien]

I have contacted Frank and this is what Frank told me:

The -g option of vbcc only provides HUNK_SYMBOL (global
symbols) and HUNK_DEBUG with LINE-debug entries. Other debug hunks are not
documented and SAS/C specific.

No information about local variables, types or structures are provided by
vbcc.
He can make it work with cpr only if there is info about sas/c hunk format so it will be dificult
to have support.